Transcript

0:00

I feel that while I’ve encountered prosecutors who are principled as individuals, in general, I have been really shocked by the lack of principle of the Prosecutor’s Office whether we’re talking about the Prosecution Office in a major city or we’re talking about the Prosecution Office here.

0:24

And it filters down. Obviously not every prosecutor thinks the same way. I’m talking about policies of the Prosecution Office. I have, I just believe that the prosecution, I mean, even, even, you know, in a place like New York City, you know, the prosecution in, in New York City, as a policy certainly doesn’t know the weight of a case.

0:50

I mean it’s clear from the indictments. It’s clear from the cases come through arraignments, they – and it’s clear from the offers they make at arraignments. They don’t know the weight of a case. So their sense of what they’re doing is totally skewed. They have no judgment. And it's not the individual 25-year-old assistant DA who’s standing up in the middle of the night because it’s his, he or she has no seniority.

1:10

But I’m telling you, the policy comes from that office and that senior person and I have, and I mean I couldn’t work. I, I couldn’t work, there’s, there’s no principle. There’s no adhesion in general to the law and the principles of law, and there’s no (__), and, and depending on where it is and, and where the offices are – there is no, there is no diligent effort to apply the rule of law equally.

1:37

And that’s true. That’s the argument here, failure to prosecute the RPF. But it’s true in, in, in various state and, and smaller jurisdictions. I mean, not every one, but it’s rare that you, you would, one would find. And I haven’t been to every place, but I’m looking for some fairness and some accountability and some equal application of the rule of law.

The views expressed in the video interviews are those of the speaker and do not necessary reflect the views of the Value Sensitive Design Research Lab, Information School, University of Washington, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, United Nations, or the funders of this project.